That Golf Digest played a role in Dixon’s release is one of the most humbling moments in our history. When Max Adler interviewed him for the original profile—after the inmate wrote to us to tell him how drawing golf courses had become a needed diversion—Dixon professed his innocence of the crime. Adler, now Golf Digest’s editorial director, dug further. In his reporting, he eventually talked to LaMarr Scott, already in prison on other charges, who confessed to the crime that Dixon was accused of.

Building on Adler’s work were other entities—notably a group of Georgetown University students working to help freed the wrongly imprisoned—that helped build a case that the Erie County district attorney’s Wrongful Convictions Unit couldn’t ignore.

On this edition of the Golf Digest Podcast, Adler talks with Sam Weinman and Keely Levins about how he first learned of Dixon and his story, what compelled him to dig further and what it was like for him to be outside the courthouse and talk to a now freed Dixon.

And here’s a sampling of the coverage from several major news outlets;

The New York TimesHow Golf Digest and college students helped free a man convicted of murder

The Washington PostHow Golf Digest helped free a golf-course artist imprisoned 27 years for a murder he didn’t commit